1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telecommunication system, and is more particularly related to managing multiple communication sessions for access to a packet switched network.
2. Discussion of the Background
The phenomenal growth of the Internet has presented network service providers (NSPs) with the continual task of responding to the millions of users' demand for reliable and fast access service. The primary role of an NSP is to connect users, which may include residential as well as business users, to a larger network for the transport of these users' data. The term Internet Service Provider (ISP) generally pertains to a particular type of network service provider that concentrates on providing access to the global Internet.
The users' demand for greater speeds is driven largely by the advancements in Internet applications, such as video teleconferencing, streaming video, and audio broadcast. Further, the graphic intensive World Wide Web further fuels the desire for high-speed access, as most users are dissatisfied with the slow response time that attends traditional analog modems. Despite the purported speeds of 33 kbps and 56 kbps, the true throughput of these analog modems falls short of such rates.
To address the speed demands of users, NSPs have deployed various communication technologies: ISDN (Integrated Serviced Digital Network), DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), and cable modems. ISDN, which supports data rates of 64 kbps and 128 kbps, has been overshadowed by the development of DSL technology. DSL technology, which includes xDSL, ADSL (asymmetric DSL), RADSL (rate adaptive DSL) and the like, provides significantly higher data rates (in the Mbps range) at a lower cost. Cable modems have also been proposed as a high-speed access solution.
Separate from the issue of transport technology, communication protocols enable network elements to communicate, and thus, are a major consideration in the design of a networking infrastructure. It is important to integrate or, at minimum, accommodate such protocols when designing the architecture of the Internet service. One key suite of communication protocols is the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), which was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and has become the de facto wide area network (WAN) link protocol. PPP enables the reliable communication between clients and servers by negotiating configuration options, such as throughput requirements and link authentication. In addition, routers, which form the core of the Internet, interconnect using PPP. In addition, PPP dynamically assigns IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. The robustness of PPP stems from the fact that it is independent from the WAN service, and therefore, can be adapted to many WAN protocols (e.g., frame relay, X.25, SONET, and etc.).
Concurrent with the development of Internet applications is the fact that Ethernet has emerged as the prevailing local area network (LAN) technology with respect to price and performance. The reduction in the cost of Ethernet technology has been substantial, whereby non-business consumers can readily setup an Ethernet-based LAN without viewing it as a significant investment. Because many homes have multiple computers, residential users find deploying an Ethernet-based LAN economically viable.
However, Internet access poses an interesting challenge to these residential users, namely, because an Ethernet-based LAN appears as a single dial-up user from the perspective of the ISP. Consequently, each of the PCs on the Ethernet-based LAN cannot be individually serviced with regard to individualized accounting and network selection. Another consideration is the ease of user installation. If the user is required to have a high level of sophistication for the successful establishment of a communication link with the ISP, then deployment of the service will not be wide spread. These considerations are further discussed below.
FIG. 6A shows a conventional system for residential access to the Internet. Sites A and B are residential locations and employ DSL technology to reach the central office (CO) 601. A user within site A utilizes a personal computer (PC) 603 that is connected to a DSL modem 605. The connection from PC 603 to the DSL modem 605 is typically through a communication port of the PC 603. Site B has two PCs 607 and 609 with two separate DSL modems 611 and 613, respectively. The modem connections for these PCs 607 and 609 are likewise through their respective communication ports.
The CO 601 possesses a DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) 614, which aggregates traffic from the DSL modems 605, 611, and 613 for transport over a data network 615 to a remote access server 617 of an ISP 619. The remote access server 617 forwards the traffic to a backbone router 621 and onto the Internet 623. Site C utilizes a more traditional dial-up approach, whereby a PC 625 dials out to a Point-of-Presence (POP) of the ISP 619 using an analog modem 627. The POP is this conventional system is the CO 601. A voice switch 629 within the CO 601 switches the data from PC 625 to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 631 to the remote access server 617 within ISP 619.
In each of the above scenarios, the PCs 603, 607, and 625 in sites A, B, and C are loaded with the PPP protocol suite for communication with the remote access server 617. It is apparent that each of the modems 605, 611, and 627 support a single PPP session. Accommodating multiple users, as in the case of site B, requires a corresponding increase in the number of DSL modems. One drawback of this solution is the high cost. At site C, for instance, PC 625 places a telephone call using the dial-up networking capabilities of Microsoft Windows 95/98; once the call is established, a data link session is established before any user data may be transferred. This data link session is typically a PPP session between PC 625 and the remote access server 617. As noted above, PPP authenticates the user, dynamically assigns an IP address, and negotiates various other connectivity parameters. When the PPP session is established, PC 625 is connected to the Internet 623.
FIG. 6B shows a conventional system for providing Internet access to a residential user with a LAN. The PCs 633 and 635 at site D communicate over a LAN 637. The LAN 637 connects to a DSL modem 614 to provide connectivity for PCs 633 and 635 to the Internet 623. As indicated previously, the ISP 619 views the LAN 637 behind DSL modem 641 as a single dial-up user. Given the system of FIG. 3, multiple PPP sessions cannot be simultaneously established from LAN 637 to remote access server 617. Another drawback concerns the fact that the ISP 619 cannot prevent the two PCs 633 and 635 from utilizing the same account for Internet access.
Although consumers of Internet services express a desire for greater access speeds (with such access technologies as DSL and cable modems), they are not willing or able to incur significant installation and configuration complexity in order to achieve faster Internet access. It is clear that to achieve rapid acceptance by consumers, broadband services must be easy to use.
In addition to ease-of-use, it is important that broadband services integrate into the current networking infrastructure as seamlessly and completely as possible, with minimal changes to existing equipment or operational systems. A broadband technology deployment that directly fits easily into an existing infrastructure would stimulate faster deployment by network service providers and greater acceptance by consumers.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for improved approaches for provisioning services to support multiple users across a single connection.
There is also a need to simplify end-user configuration.
There is also a need to enable the dynamic selection of multiple services.
There is also a need to use a common customer premises equipment to serve multiple users.
There is also a need to avoid significant hardware and software upgrades or replacement.
There is also a need to reduce the cost of providing network services.
There is also a need to accommodate the existing cabling infrastructure in the deployment of data network services.
Based on the need to supply network services to a multitude of users, an approach for maintaining multiple point-to-point communication sessions that is independent of the access technology and distribution media is highly desirable.